SO it's day third of Mood I, 'biggest college fest across the country' (make that Asia) as WE fondly like to put it while writing our resumes. So havent got a job yet. So, I planned that I wouldnt be doing much this MI(Mood Indigo and not mission impossible). But then Mr Pankaj Udash was coming and something inside me wanted to go and see him.However, I refused to go when my friends asked me to. And while watching rimi sen 'dancing' on the song 'shikdhum' I realized that I dont have to be do things that I dont want to do, I dont have to stay here and grunt and not go to the 'gazal nite' just bcoz i said no to my friends and if i did go ther it will make me a man who cant keep his words. Anyways, so i did attend the gazal nite the nite before last nite and watched KK sing 'sach kah raha hai diwana' from RHTDM which I didnt know (i knew the song, but i didnt know that he had sung it).

Anyway this post is not about them. This post is about Shantaram. yupp, Gregory David Roberts came here this afternoon. And it turned out to be the coolest thing so far in MI. So when he cracked a joke in the middle and cudnt get it, but I still laughed because i wanted to i knew that i have got to write a post on it. The great Sayesha bhai (sayesha.blogspot.com, i dunno how to give link, and i can search web, but i dont want to.) kaa khayaal came to my mind and i thought 'wud i be able to discribe things the way she does?'. 'may be if i had a pen and paper i cud better'. anyway i know that i am in no going to be able to give you the feel of the great talk that i witnessed i am just going to write down things as they come to my mind. I want to look back at my past from a point in future and feel the energy that the man generated. for starters, mr roberts were convicted for 'bank robbery i guess' and given an imprisonment of 10 years as punishment. he was anyhow able to escape from it in broad day light, and landed in the city of dreams, here in mumbai. well, man has done almost every goddamn fancy crime one wud fantasise about. he told us many stories. and i dont know how or where to begin with. i think i sud just go on.

so at the age of 16, he fell in love with a 18 yrs old girl. he asked his parents to give him permission so that he cud marry her, as in australia u need parental permission to marry if u r below 18. they refused, so he left the house and started to live with her. worked in factories to earn, his love being pursueing her studies at that point of time. On the day he was 18 he married her. he however joined the night classes, topped in the whole state(hopefully) and got a scholarship for higher studies at any university in US. Then he talked about the vietnam war.and how young 18-19 yrs old guys were forced to go to war. however, he refused to go to war.. and something something happened. anyway, he was very active politically. and i think this post is being more as an account of events than my interpretations. is it??

anyways, i guess he came back to australia, or was in america, anyway his wife married some one else, and went 'somewher' leaving her 3 yrs old baby to him. for the first few months both of them did nothing but crying. but then he took her to university and she wud draw cartoons on paper while he studied. but after few months, his wife came back, her relationship with his new found love hadnt quite worked out. anyway she sued roberts to get the custody of their doughter and she won.

and that was the night when he was thinking about getting himself killed without creating much mess *laughs* when one of his friends at the university came to his house. he said' i heard about everything man, the sueing and all. i have got exactly the thing that you need'. and that was the first time when he had his first shot of heroin. wow. and he knew that as long as it was inside his system he can live in this world, which took everything away from him.

anyways, he kept maintaining that he is not proud of the things that he has done in past (he said that he is ashamed actually) and that he should have been stronger. he said a nice thing at the start. he said - 'while you might think that your faimily is gone, amd you have got nothing to be living for, the truth is that you should work hard, and you should save money. bcuz one day your offsprings are going to come back in your search, and that day you have got to say that 'look son, i have saved this much amount of money. wher sud we go to celebrate??'.' man, u wer awesome.

anyways he talked about his whole life. and i think that he is no longer stranger to me. and he did talk about mumbai.. india. he even said sentenses in hindi. " aye, Lahsun. side de naa.' and the thing that i liked most about him was that he always refered to mumbai and its people as 'us'. i felt that here is a man who is not a gora, a man who is even more indian than many of us. he told a lot of stories. and i hate typing. i have already said enough. may be i ll write about him later again. and yes, i got his autograph ( it actually looks like a graph, and i dont know how i am going to make people believe that its his sign!) on a 100 rupee note.`

okk! i will write more i think. he said that a girl once asked him if she wud be able to roam around freely if she were in australia, and he actually tgave the answer as no. mumbai..umm, may be. and he said some awesome sentences of how every man has a crystal(or something) that relates him to god, who has given us the unique ability to love and communicate, which makes him believe that the future of world can not be like the one that exists in england, australia or america. the future of world has got to be like india, or more so like mumbai,

'mumbai is not a city.' he said. then he defined city for us. a villege wen develops a bit, it transforms into a town. and wen a town is so big that it needs a pipe to carry its shit, its a town. yaa, a efficient plumbing system is what defines a city. he said that this city doesnt have basic facility for all of its inhabitant. he was particularly concerned abt women. he said that he was happy that women wer more free now 'bcos its ther goddamn right'.

he also talked baout johnny depp. i am a huge fan of depp and i am happy that i got to listen gud things about him. how he had different offers from differnt movie makers but he wanted to give it to johnny depp bcos he talked abt india and its people. anyways, the biggest bid actually came from warner bros and so it was happy happy situation for everyone. man i sud stop.